At the beginning of every year, many experts offer their list of industry forecasts for the year ahead. Some turn out to be highly accurate, and others, not so much. In the hotel industry in particular, most prediction articles neglect to mention how hoteliers should actually implement these trends at their properties. After all, figuring out how to make a trend work for you can often be the hardest part of innovation.
So, for 2015, we’ve put together the trends that hoteliers are most likely to experience this year, along with some strategies for implementing them most effectively.
Mobile Travelers Require Mobile-Friendly Services
Today, almost everybody has a smartphone or tablet; whether they use it for reading the next bestseller or chatting with friends on Facebook, we will see that these devices will become even more critical for hoteliers to consider in 2015.
Unlike previous generations, Millennials (those who reached young adulthood around the year 2000) are “mobile-first” travel consumers who rely heavily on their mobile while traveling – not only for booking, but also to research and find solutions for any issues they might encounter.
In order to make your property more appealing to this type of consumer, it is important that you think beyond just mobile bookings (but of course, if you still haven’t implemented a mobile-friendly site, now is the time!). Some other key tech elements that you should implement at your property to appeal to this type of traveler include:
· Free high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the property.
· Option to checkout via tablets in the front lobby.
· Device charging docks in all of the common areas.
· Music players that will work with both Apple and Android devices.
· Online concierge service with local info, attractions, etc.
· Smart TVs, which allow streaming from a guests’ various online accounts for TV, movies, music, etc. (i.e. Netflix, Pandora, etc.).
All of these options provide self-service options for those who would prefer to do everything online from their collection of smartphones, tablets and laptops, and will help your hotel increase your popularity with this growing demographic.
Optimize Big Data, Online & On-Site
The proliferation of big data runs the risk of overwhelming hoteliers, but managed correctly, it can unlock the door to highly personalized experiences for guests and better operations for hoteliers – both online and on-site. Hotels will need to find ways to harness the power of data to find meaningful insight into traveler behavior and likes/dislikes to make decisions that decrease costs, drive greater guest satisfaction and increase revenue. What is especially critical is to find a way to leverage the most valuable Guest Intelligence in conjunction with your existing technology systems (CRM, PMS, Business Intelligence, etc.).
Analyze online semantic data (the language used by guests in online reviews) to help you identify how guests feel about the overall condition of your hotel’s resources and the ROI of budgets for separate departments.
Guest satisfaction data is also no longer limited to online reviews. Harvest even more feedback by creating custom online guest satisfaction surveys that allow your hotel to ask guests specific questions about different elements of their experience at your hotel. Find out more about how your hotel can implement guest satisfaction surveys.
Use an online reputation management tool that analyzes reviews from all sources (there are more than 140) in all languages, that is user-friendly (to maximize staff engagement) and that offers an open platform (API access that can connect to your property’s current internal technological platforms/systems) to enable accessing and managing all online reviews, comments, ratings and direct guest survey results in one integrated platform.
